Comcast says $45B Time Warner Cable deal to take longer

NEW YORK (AP) — Comcast says its $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable will take longer than expected because of a long-running regulatory review.

The country’s largest cable company wants to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., the No. 2 cable provider, to create an Internet and TV giant that would serve nearly 30 percent of cable TV subscribers and more than half of high-speed Internet subscribers.

The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department are still reviewing the deal, which was announced in February 2014.

Consumer advocates have expressed concern that Comcast would have control over too much of the country’s Internet access.

Comcast said in a blog post Wednesday that it now expects the FCC’s review to finish in the middle of the year. It had predicted the deal would close in early 2015. The FCC has delayed its review because of a court case that is pending.

In that case, content providers such as The Walt Disney Co. don’t want the FCC to show documents filed with the government that contain private information, such as its contracts with pay TV companies, to lawyers and other people outside the agency.

A federal court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments in the case in February but hasn’t issued a decision yet.

Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. has called the case a “procedural matter” related to its Time Warner Cable deal.